After deaths, lives go on

PROMPT: Shakespeare based this story on a poem by Arthur Brooke entitled "The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet." At the end of the poem, Brooke tells what happens to several characters after the lovers' deaths. For example, the apothecary was hanged for selling poison. Write your own description of the fate of the following characters who remain alive: Nurse, Friar Lawrence, and Lord Capulet. Make sure your descriptions are believable and accurate. Also, organize your various descriptions into logical paragraphs. Utilize quotes from the text to support your ideas and don't forget to provide parenthetical citation! Images with captions are not required, but encouraged.

FRIAR LAWRENCE:  Friar Lawrence has ended his Verona priesthood and moved in with other members of his brotherhood in England because of the guilt he felt about lying and being partially responsible for the deaths of Paris, Romeo, and Juliet. When he says, "Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains the stony entrance to this sepulcher? What mean these masterless and gory swords to lie discoulour'd  by this place of peace? Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too? And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour is guilty of this lamentable change! The lady stirs" (Shakespeare 290).  Then, as soon as the kind prince let him go, Friar Lawrence packed his few earthly belongings, (a change of robes, food, water, money) and fled to England.

NURSE: When Nurse discovered Juliet "dead," she broke into hysterics and almost had a heart attack. She shows her despair over Juliet's fake death when she says," O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day! Most lamentable day, most woeful day, that ever, ever, I did behold! O day! O day! O day! O hateful day! Never was seen so black a day as this. O woeful day, o woeful day!" (256) We see here that Nurse becomes unstable and when she finds out that Juliet died for real, Nurse also died. She died from high blood pressure and a heart attack. She and Juliet are now reunited in heaven enjoying every minute of it.

LORD CAPULET: Lord Capulet became utterly depressed when his one pride and joy died. His only child was taken from him, ripped out from under his cautious gaze. When Lord Capulet says, "Despis'd, distressed, hated, matyr'd. kill'd! Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now to murder, murder our solemnity? O child! My child! My soul, and not my child! Dead  art thou! Alack! My child is dead; and with my child my joys are buried" (256). The only bright spots in his life were his wife and the portrait he had painted of Juliet in his home. When, on a rare occasion, he went into town he always stood and stared at the wonderful golden sculpture of his lovely daughter, standing proudly next to her love, Romeo Montague.  He wept when he stared at it until he could bear it no more. 

 Vocabulary: 

1. apprehend-  to take into custody; arrest by legal warrant or authority
2. canopy-  a covering, usually of fabric, supported on poles or suspended above a bed, throne, exalted personage, or sacred object.
3. contempt-  the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn.
4. disperse-  to drive or send off in various directions; scatter
5. inexorable- not to be persuaded, moved, or affected by prayers or entreaties
6. interred-  to place (a dead body) in a grave or tomb; bury.
7. penury-  scarcity; dearth; inadequacy; insufficiency.
8. remnants-  a small, unsold or unused piece of cloth, lace, etc., as at the end of a bolt.
9. righteous- acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous

1. Why would Friar Lawrence ask Juliet to carry out a dangerous plan instead of just going to her parents and explaining that she was already married to Romeo? Find examples from the text to support your opinions. Be sure to elaborate and explain your thoughts in detail.

1. Friar Lawrence asked Juliet to carry out a dangerous plan because he was probably ashamed of already having married Juliet to Romeo and he also knew that Romeo and Juliet loved each other and that Juliet hated Paris and had refused to marry him already. For example, when Juliet says, 
                    "Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. If, in thy                     wisdom, thou canst give no help, do thou but call my resolution wise, and with this knife I'll help it presently... my true heart with treacherous revolt turn to another, this shall slay them both. Therefore, out of thy long-experience'd time,, give me some present counsel, or, behold, 'twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife shall play the umpire, arbitrating that which the commission of thy years and art could to no issue of true honour bring. Be not so long to speak; I long to die if what thou speak'st speak not of remedy" ( Shakespeare 232).


Here, we see that Juliet is saying that she would rather die than marry Paris, so Friar Lawrence gives her the vial of the potion to make her appear dead so that she and Romeo can run away to Mantua together.

VOCABULARY:

1. arbitrating- to act as arbitrator or arbiter; decide between opposing or contending parties or sides.
2. distraught- distracted; deeply agitated.
3. immoderately- not moderate; exceeding just or reasonable limits; excessive; extreme.
4. inundation-to flood; cover or overspread with water; deluge. To overwhelm: inundated with letters of protest.
5. resolution- the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
6. spited- to treat with spite or malice. A malicious, usually petty, desire to harm, annoy, frustrate, or humiliate another person; bitter ill will; malice.
7. supple-bending readily without breaking or becoming deformed; pliant; flexible: a supple bough. Characterized by ease in bending; limber; lithe: supple movements.
   
   
   

Friar Lawrence's Confessions

Dearest Companion,

         Hello, old friend. I am upset that you are one of the only people I can talk to now during these dark times, although you are not a person at all. I have only just married two people, although their parents do not approve of their union. I just united Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, hoping that this would end the fight between their two familes that has been going on longer than anyone can remember. But now, I have Romeo here, weeping like an infant in my cell about the fact that Prince Escalus has banished him from Verona. I have tried to sway him to accept his fate and go home, collect his things and leave for Mantua tonight. But, here he is moaning and groaning and chiding me, me of all people, about how he will not be able to continue his life without his sweet Juliet. His lady's nurse came to my cell as well to infrom the young man that Juliet was in the same state, bawling and howling for Tybalt, whom Romeo killed, and in turn Romeo who is banished.

        Romeo's banishment was caused because of that fight, but he was only avenging gentle Mercutio's death by the firey Tybalt's hand. I do so hope that Romeo will find a good place in Mantua, but I must depart now, for Romeo is ablout to go visit his wife and comfort and console her until they can meet again. I feel awful about how short I am being with him and hope he doesn't take it the wrong way or do anything rash. The boy was like a son, or a brother to me.God bless them both, and their families as well. Amen.


Sincerest secrecy,
 Friar  Lawrence

Blog Post #3- Act II

3. Do you approve of the Nurse's and Friar's actions in helping with the secret wedding? Explain why or why not and support your reasoning with citations from the text.

3. I approve of the Nurse's and Friar Lawrance's actions in helping Romeo and Juliet with the secret wedding because they both care about Romeo and Juliet and they would do anything for them. In Act II, Scene VI, Friar Lawrence says before he marries Romeo and Juliet, "So smile the heavens upon this holy act, that after-hours with sorrow chide us not!" and Romeo says, "Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can, it cannot countervail th' exchange of joy that one short minute gives me in her sight. Do thou but close our hands with holy words, the love-devouring Death do what he dare; It is enough I may but call her mine." In this conversation, Romeo is expressing his love for Juliet and how happy he is that Friar Lawrence is marrying them in secret because their parents would not allow it.

 Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet because he wants to end the fight between the two families and hopes that it does, but it ends up not going as he had planned, even though he stopped their fight by marrying their children.

VOCABULARY:

1. chided- to express disapproval of; scold; reproach;to harass, nag, impel, or the like by chiding; to scold; find fault.

2. confounds- to perplex or amaze, esp. by a sudden disturbance or surprise; bewilder; confuse
3. driveling- to utter childishly or idiotically; to let saliva flow from the mouth or mucus from the nose; slaver.

4. exposition- writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation; explanatory treatise
5. idolatry- excessive or blind adoration, reverence, devotion, etc.

6. lamentable- that is to be lamented; regrettable; unfortunate
7. perjuries- the willful giving of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal inquiry.

Blog Post # 2- Act 1

3. Compare Romeo's reaction to Juliet's when each discovers the true identity of the other. How are they alike? How are they different? what would your reaction be? 3. Romeo is shocked to find that Juliet is a Capulet, just like she is also shocked to find that he is a Montague. Romeo has gotten over his love for Rosaline the minute he sees Juliet and she falls in love with him the moment she talks to him too. However, while Juliet tells her nurse to go and see who he is and whether or not he is married is different from when Romeo finds out and he leaves with Mercutio, Benvolio and the rest of his friends. I would have said that we could never be together because of our families fighting, and that I was very sorry, but am sure that we would get over each other in time.


A foil is a character who has qualities that are in sharp contrast to another character, thus emphasizing the traits of each. How is Mercutio a foil to Romeo? 4. Mercutio makes jokes a lot, speaks in riddles and tries to lighten up the mood, while Romeo, on the other hand is dark, depressed, and lovesick for someone who cannot love him back because Rosaline took a vow never to love.
Vocabulary:
adversary- a person, group, or force that opposes or attacks; opponent; enemy; foe
disparagement- something that derogates or casts in a bad light, as a remark or censorious essay 
pernicious- causing insidious harm or ruin; ruinous; injurious; hurtful
posterity- succeeding or future generations collectively; all descendants of one person
propagate- to reproduce (itself, its kind, etc.), as an organism does; to create an effect at a distance, as by electromagnetic waves, compression waves, etc., traveling through space or a physical medium

Blog Post # 1- Fate

I think that your own fate is completely up to you based on the decisions that you make with all of the responsibilities and consequences that come with that decision. For instance, if you decide to eat at a place in a not so respectable part of town and there is a voice in your head telling you that it doesn't seem like a good idea, and you are walking back to the bus stop, your car or whatever, and you get your purse or wallet stolen or if you get mugged, that is mostly your own fault because you didn't have to eat there, and you should gone with your better judgment and stayed away and gone to somewhere safer in a better lit and more populated place rather than eat at aforementioned questionable eatery.  Your fate is is your own hands and whether or not you listen to that little voice and have a safe, natural experience with fate that allows you to continue on the path to a different one later, or come crashing headfirst into a new direction that may impact you for the rest of your life.